


Seal of Approval

by Erisabesu (ErisabesuFic)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21700840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErisabesuFic/pseuds/Erisabesu
Summary: “Neji’s promotion is the first to interfere. Naruto’s promotion is another matter, however.” [2009.02.25]
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 93





	Seal of Approval

Seal of Approval

♦

Neji’s promotion is the first to interfere.

Once accepted to ANBU he can no longer depend on his time off to remain free—he’s summoned right from the dinner table or pulled out of Naruto’s arms into midnight’s shadows, the new mask and uniform thinly veiling his resentment. Still, he performs his duties perfectly. He and Naruto survive. They’re not the first couple to be inconvenienced by duty, nor are they the first to devise ways to steal enough moments of quiet intimacy to last through each period of uncertainty.

Naruto’s promotion is another matter, however.

Neji always turns in his ANBU reports in person, always still in uniform. The new Hokage’s office is noise and motion, a boisterous chaos at once serious and amusing. Naruto looks up from his desk long enough to wave him inside, an aide carefully removing a steaming cup of tea before Naruto can knock it over while blindly searching through the papers and scrolls stacked in every which way.

Neji passes over a tightly bound report, watching as Naruto’s eyes finally pause to take him in and then flicker in recognition—the anonymity of the ANBU uniform is lost to those eyes of blue that see him better than anyone else ever could. Neji brushes his gloved hand across Naruto’s knuckles.

“Welcome back.” Naruto’s eyes sparkle, right before a stack of scrolls slips over the side of the desk. Naruto lunges to catch them, knocking over a sheaf of documents in the process.

Two more aides rush over. Neji stands apart from the ensuing scramble, watching the whole room through Byakugan while a Jounin he recognizes from the code-breaking department pushes through the office door in deep discussion with one of Naruto’s clones, followed by a Chuunin carrying three heavy books in her arms.

“Hokage-sama, I brought the materials from the archives!”

“Aha!” Naruto rises from under his desk, triumphant, a courier-satchel in his hand. “I’ve been looking for this report!” He glances at Neji and grins, rubbing his nape, then brightens even further when the Chuunin comes around the side of the desk and plunks the books down overtop the rest of the mess.

Neji glances at the clock on the wall, frowning beneath porcelain. He hates to ask questions whose answers are obvious.

“Will I see you for dinner?” He keeps his voice low.

Naruto’s expression changes, something of surprise mixed in with analysis. He looks around the room, and then back at Neji, heaving a sigh.

“I’ll be home as soon as I can. _Promise_.”

Neji bows and slips through the crowd.

On the nights Naruto does make it home, it’s always long past dinnertime. Neji’s still glad to see him, and Naruto is as affectionate as usual, but _exhausted_ —ten minutes of deep kissing and he falls asleep right there in their bed before either of them can get completely naked. Neji props his head on his elbow and watches him snore, counting in his mind the long string of days they’ve been too busy with some aspect of serving Konoha to have time for each other. It wouldn’t be so impossible if there weren’t so much paperwork involved in running a hidden village, Naruto stuck neck deep in it.

He appreciates that Naruto has the spirit and dedication to devote so much of himself to Konoha. He strokes over the bulge between his legs and knows that they’re also about to have a very serious problem—this isn’t like before, when Naruto could hide out with him in one of the seedy rooms above the less-frequented tea shop at the edge of town for twenty-two hours of hot sex and pillow talk between their A or S-ranked missions.

Naruto’s time is _Konoha’s_ now.

The next morning, after Naruto has rushed back to the office, Neji has a sudden insight sometime between drinking his morning tea and rifling through their piles of junk mail. He blinks.

And then he looks out their window to the Hokage tower, expression smug.

♦

“What’s this?” Naruto takes the paper from his hand, one brow raised in suspicion.

Neji folds his hands behind his back and nods for him to read it. For once the office is quiet—only the Hokage works so late at night, and Neji tries not to be too resentful that Naruto will consider the private lives of everyone but _them_. He watches Naruto’s eyes flick back and forth over the page in his hands, the second brow lifting just as high as the first.

“You can’t be serious!”

Neji’s lips slant in a wry smile, his long fingers dipping into the fold of his linen shirt and producing a second document which he also offers to his Hokage.

Naruto snatches it and begins to read, brows furrowed to match his confused frown. As Neji expects, Naruto’s features smooth out somewhat before he reaches the end, and he lowers the paper and shoots him another suspicious—but ultimately amused—look.

“So you’re resigning from ANBU and applying to work as my assistant?” Naruto chuckles, setting the papers on top of the piles and teetering stacks and carefully balanced pyramids of paper suffocating his desk, crossing his arms.

“I have also written a resume,” Neji produces a scroll from his sleeve. “And I have enclosed three letters of recommendation. Please let me know if you require more, my Lord.”

Neji bows his head, smirking as Naruto rolls his eyes—he’s still new enough in his position to dislike the formalities that accompany the title.

“I shouldn’t thank you for increasing my workload with all of this.” Naruto shoots him a mischievous look, gesturing at the new pile of paperwork, and then he sighs. “But I should be able to get back to you sometime before…”

Naruto opens a drawer and rifles for something, then frowns. He pats his palms down the front pockets of his coat, and then the inner pockets of his flak-jacket, and then the pockets of his pants—

Neji holds up a hand, and then makes his way out the door. “Take your time. I think you know where to find me.”

“Haha, yeah,” Naruto grins, waving to him. “We’ll talk about it later, okay? I think we should negotiate this.” Then, to himself, “But I know I had my calendar earlier, it was in _that_ drawer, I’m sure of it…”

♦

Neji still goes on ANBU missions; he knew he wouldn’t be let off the hook there, not as one of Konoha’s top captains. But now the missions are fewer—more dangerous, perhaps, but it’s a price he’s willing to pay—so that he has the time and energy necessary to assist the Hokage.

His official position is that of a “personal assistant,” but Neji’s true motive for placement in the Hokage office is to disentangle the Hokage from the antiquated systems keeping them from having sex.

He has had some success … only not as far as the bedroom. At least not yet.

In three weeks, the necessary forms for doing business in Fire Country have been simplified and reworked, resulting in less than half the paperwork than before. Countless departments have shown a spike in productivity since the deluge of documentation and burden of endless filing has let up, and Chuunin and Jounin are now free to focus on teaching and training, reconnaissance and diplomacy rather than the chaos and insanity of before that Neji would rather not remember. Period.

The Hokage still works late at night, but at least Neji is with him. In some ways this is better—but in a lot of ways it’s worse. If it was difficult to be abstinent before, it is even more difficult to be holed up in the same office together hour after hour, day after day and _still_ be abstinent. For even though progress is being made, by the time they make it home to their bed, Neji falls asleep just as fast as Naruto. He would be ashamed, but, well, they’re in the same boat.

And so Neji presses on, right there beside Naruto, ever focused on the goal—only he doesn’t intend to wait much longer, and truthfully he doesn’t have to. The foundation has been laid; all that’s left is one minor detail.

“Hey, hey,” Naruto grabs Neji’s sleeve as he walks by the desk.

Neji pauses, clipboard bulging full of documents in need of official seals. He turns, surveying the last two stacks of papers left on the desk. “Finished?”

Naruto grumbles, fist clenching tighter on his sleeve—which tells Neji all he needs to know.

“Look.” Naruto looks up at him, eyes imploring. “I hate to say it, but…” He bites his lip.

Neji inclines his head. “But what?”

Naruto fidgets in his seat, and then sighs. “I … _thinkIneedabreak_.”

Neji’s brows arch in surprise.

“Gah,” Naruto presses his palms together in plea. “Please—just a little one? I’m almost done with this, and you’ve made things so much smoother lately I thought maybe we could just… er…”

Neji hugs the clipboard to his chest, mouth curling in a sly, wicked smile. “Continue.”

Naruto’s eyes snap up. “Uh…” He tugs his collar away from his neck. Even so, his voice comes out low, and with increasing huskiness. “I think we should take a little break… you and me… go home and light a fire.”

Neji leans into the side of the desk, their gazes locked. “And then?”

Naruto licks his lips, shrugging one shoulder. “We can come back later and finish. There’s not that much.” He cocks his head, reaching one hand out to hook a finger in Neji’s pants pocket. “Whaddya say?”

Neji turns towards him, and sets the clipboard on the desk. “I’ve got a better idea.” He puts one hand on Naruto’s shoulder, and taps the clipboard with his other hand. “These are all waiting for the Hokage’s seal. How about we stay as long as it takes you to finish with these—and then we call it a night. Hmm?”

Naruto’s smart enough to know a good deal from a bad one. Neji’s eyes gleam as Naruto’s hands flip from one document to the next and stamp the official mark in the appropriate spots over and over in an almost orgasmic fury. When he’s done he stands up so quick his desk chair goes spinning backwards into the wall, but Neji can hardly care because _finally_ the last piece is in place to ensure they’ll never have to live through another dry spell of this sort ever again.

Out of respect for the Hokage office, they _do_ go home before anything can get sticky. Or sweaty, or broken, or otherwise destroyed from unleashed passions. They can get new buttons and shirts and zippers and headbands and coffee tables; it’s worth such minor losses for such a _huge_ gain—even if Neji fears he might not be able to sit, walk, or bend properly once they collapse.

It’s worth the risk of migraines from dehydration to have Naruto’s naked body under his, Naruto’s hands cupping his ass and holding him _tight tight tight_. It’s worth their silk sheets ruined with salad oil because neither of them can find the tube of lubricant, as long as Naruto’s tongue is in his mouth and Neji can ride them into the mattress and come on Naruto’s chest. It’s worth the mess of his hair matted all down his back, gripped and tugged in Naruto’s passion, for the serenity afterwards soaking in the bathtub as Naruto carefully washes and brushes it back to clean gloss.

And it’s worth all the stunned and bewildered stares the next day, when at 6:00pm Neji declares that the Hokage has an important engagement and everyone is dismissed for the day.

Naruto gapes at him. “Wait, wait, hang on—I thought there was a meeting in twenty minutes with the Torture and Interrogation’s Socio-pathologist? I’m sure it was in my calendar—“

Neji calmly swipes the pocket calendar out of Naruto’s hand, and flips back and forth over the next few days. “It can be rescheduled for tomorrow morning, 7:00am, and we’ll move the 8:00am meeting to 8:30. That should suffice.”

“We can’t just do that,” Naruto puts both hands on his desk, serious. “They’re already on their way. We can’t change things at the last minute—“

“I’m afraid _this_ supercedes all prior engagements.” Neji slips him the two page document from the folder on his clipboard, the Hokage seal an obvious, brilliant scarlet in the top corner.

Naruto holds it up, face screwed up in confusion. “Uh, ‘Proclamation for the Preservation of Adequate Oral Se—” Naruto’s voice cuts off abruptly, his eyes wide in shock. “ _Haaaaaaaah?!_ ”

“Please, read it out loud if you like.” Neji gestures for him to continue, only half guilty for causing such a thoroughly lovely blush.

Naruto holds onto the edge of the desk for support, eyes quickly flicking over the rest of the Proclamation, and skin turning redder and redder until he drops the document and clears his throat, addressing the handful of aides and colleagues in the room.

“Ah, sorry, it seems there’s something I need to take care of.” Naruto flashes everyone an apologetic smile, rubbing the back of his head. He goes over to the closest Jounin and asks her to let Ibiki know about the change in plans, then waves everyone out the doors.

Neji smirks, knowing they all adore their Hokage enough to cut him some slack. And how could they not fall completely in love with someone who works so hard for them?

Naruto closes the doors to his office with visible relief, then returns to his desk and retrieves the Proclamation, not quite meeting Neji’s eyes. He clears his throat a second time. “Proclamation for the Preservation of Adequate Oral Sex and other Carnal Acts of Love?”

Neji shrugs. “Well I figured it should cover as much as possible without any loopholes.”

“Aha.” Naruto coughs, fighting off another blush. “So I, the Rokudaime Hokage, have apparently pledged—against my own knowledge, I might add—to leave my office from 6:00 to 9:00 every night, minimum, and report to Captain Hyuuga Neji.”

Naruto glances up, blue eyes accusing. Neji tries his best to look innocent.

Naruto puts one hand on his hip, but still manages to look awkward from his obvious embarrassment. “Where I shall be responsible for administering by hand a full body massage, as well as no less than thirty minutes of fellatio or thirty minutes of rimming, the selection to be determined and/or expanded by Captain Hyuuga on a nightly basis.”

Neji tilts his head, looking at him through his lashes. “ _And_?”

“Neji!” Naruto shouts, exasperated, thwaking the document against the top of his desk. “ _Rimming_? You actually made me sign something with that word in it?! Are you insane?!”

Neji chuckles, “I did list exceptions, didn’t I?”

“Well thank God for that, otherwise I could probably lose my job!” Naruto heaves a huge sigh.

Neji goes over to him, and circles his arms around Naruto’s waist. He leans over so he can read from the document too. “The Rokudaime’s carnal responsibilities to Captain Hyuuga will be placed on hold in case of fire, flood, earthquake, loss of village-wide power, or any other disaster or time of crisis, however small, medium, or large. The Rokudaime may also renegotiate the timeframe with Captain Hyuuga, as long as both professional and personal obligations are prioritized so that neither are neglected.”

“Go on.” Naruto pokes him in the ribs.

“The Rokudaime may also trade responsibilities with Captain Hyuuga at any time, upon prior agreement.”

Naruto puts the document down on the desk so he can slip his arms around Neji and square their bodies together. “You know what I’m going to ask for, right?” Naruto waggles his eyebrows.

Neji rolls his eyes, but still feels his heart thump in his chest. Still, he can’t allow it to be that easy. “Tomorrow?”

“Hey!” Naruto squeezes him. “After you tricked me into signing this—this _indecent_ thing? I mean, if anyone ever finds this I’m—“

Neji stops all protests with his lips, clutching the back of Naruto’s flak-jacket in un-feigned urgency, stopping the kiss only when Naruto pushes him against the desk.

Neji pants into the curve of Naruto’s neck. “We’ve lost five minutes already you know—“

Naruto doesn’t let him finish, grabbing him by the elbow and hustling them both out the door.

—

Ω


End file.
